The House voted 74 to 72 in favour of the package of 18 bills, which will see carbon priced at $23 per tonne from 1 July 2012, rising by 2.5 per cent each year during a three-year fixed price period until 1 July 2015, when the mechanism will transition to an emissions trading scheme with a price determined by the market.

Approximately 500 Australian businesses will be required to pay for their carbon emissions under the plan, and much of the revenue collected will support investment in research, project development and employment growth in the clean energy industry.

More feel good legislation which will do nothing to curb the increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2, but descimate whatever heavy industry is left in Oz.

If Australia was really, really serious about global warming, they would leave their vast coal reserves underground. As it turns out, Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the first of two installments of A Sceptical Climate: Media coverage of climate change in Australia 2011, Professor Bacon writes that “Negative coverage across News Ltd newspapers far outweighed positive coverage with 82% compared to 18% positive articles. This indicates a very strong stance against the carbon policy adopted by the company that controls most Australian metropolitan newspapers, and has 70% of Australian newspaper circulation.”

Households and businesses face the biggest tax shake-up in more than a decade in just over a week, as the carbon price and major changes to tax rates and family payments take effect.

And unlike the back-to-back tax cuts of the Howard years, the upcoming changes will overwhelmingly benefit low and middle-income earners while taxing higher-income households more.

Under compensation for the carbon tax, which commences tomorrow week, everyone earning less than $80,000 a year will receive a tax cut.

For someone with an annual salary of $65,000 the tax saving is worth $303 a year. People earning $25,000 or less will receive the biggest tax cuts, of between $500 and $600 a year.

Households receiving Family Tax Benefit Part A will also get extra support, while pensioners, students and some families have recently received increased cash payments.

People earning more than $80,000 will not receive any income tax cuts, though everyone who earns more than $50,000 will no longer pay the temporary flood levy.

Tax increases on superannuation will also target higher income earners, while people earning less than $37,000 will effectively pay no tax on compulsory super contributions.

In healthcare, private health insurance subsidies for individuals earning more than $84,000 will be cut. The Medicare levy surcharge will rise for people who don't take out private health insurance. Tax experts said the changes represented the most significant overhaul in the tax system since the GST was introduced in 2000.